We all have heard the saying that nothing is perfect. Well, it certainly is the case with this book. This book will not make you an expert in every single J2EE technology. Will give you a good introduction though! I thought the first couple of chapters on the new additions to Java Tiger were pretty solid. However, the chapters on Networking and Security were too shallow. No big deal though. Just buy Java Network Programming from Oreilly. Murach's Just Java 6th edition is a nice book to have in addition to this book. It touches the stuff that this one doesn't, and it misses the stuff that this book presents solidly. So, there you have it. Buy both, and you will get the best of both worlds. But whatever you do, do not even consider Herbert Schildt's 1.5 if you are a beginner.

Those who criticized this book as being a poor choice for beginners were unfair. (Why did they buy the Professional Version anyway?) Teaching those first steps to people who are not too familiar with computers in general is a book in itself. This book is perfect for anyone who has mastered even the most basic steps and wants to move far, far beyond.I was first exposed to Photoshop only a few weeks ago and after about 2 days of learning the basics using a popular beginner's manual found that the "how to" book had taken me as far as it could go. It was just enough to get me addicted but left me with too many questions.I thought that I might have been a bit presumptuous in purchasing the "Professional Version" of the Bible, but as soon as I started reading it quickly discovered that it answered all my questions. I went from page to page saying to myself "oh, so that's how..." and "hey, I was having trouble with this". Amazing! And it is written in language that even a newbie like myself can understand and follow.I am still a beginner but I love this book. I can see myself referring to it for years to come.

I've browsed other O'Reilly books before and have always been impressed by their quality. This book is no exception, in fact it should be regarded as the new standard.This book is clearly and concisely written, pitched to an audience that has some background in coding, be it C, C++, VB, or whatever. My background is in VB and I've found myself defending it too often. I've decided that I'm just not going to do that anymore. C# is a wonderful language and Jesse Liberty's book is a marvellous introduction. Cya VB, C# here I come!I don't believe I can recommend this book highly enough.Jesse, I eagerly await any further C# tomes.

If you are interested in encryption, you should probably get Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, which is generally considered the standard summary of the field. But suppose you actually want to use some of the symmetric key or public key methods he describes? If you want to code from scratch, his book is a good starting point. But if you want to quickly avail yourself of the best existing methods and you don't want to reinvent the wheel by recoding? Also, it can be risky to do that. A mistake made in coding a crypto algorithm might render it insecure. Better to use reviewed, tested code.If this describes your needs and you code in C or C++, then this book will be invaluable. Extensive code fragments that show how you can interface to existing crypto packages. Very detailed. You won't find theorems or any elegant maths here. No Chinese Remainder Theorem or Fermat's theorems. You have to already know or accept the theoretical underpinnings. Given this, the book takes you into the nitty gritty of every major publicly available cryptosystem. With up to date assessments of their comparative strengths.All of the above is aimed at application developers. The book also has sections for sysadmins of both unix and Microsoft operating systems, replete with suggestions on patching and good practice.Don't be daunted by the book's heft. It is encyclopaedic in scope, and access is reasonably random access. The authors have striven to comprehensively span the field. You don't have to read from start to finish before you can commence using it.